Ghana Mobile Network Quality of Service (QoS) Monitoring Results for the 2018 First Quarter.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has published the Mobile Network Quality of Service (QoS) Monitoring Results for the 2018 First Quarter. This follows an earlier plan released by the Authority to conduct field QoS Monitoring in all district capitals for five (5) regions, namely, Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern and Western Regions. The other five (5) regions, Central, Brong Ahafo, Volta, Upper East and Upper West are currently being monitored; this will cover 96 district capitals and will be published in July, 2018.

For the Ashanti Region, the NCA is publishing Voice Quality monitoring results for only two (2) Districts as the results of the other districts were not yet available. The Authority will release the full Voice Quality monitoring results of the Ashanti Region in due course.

Service attributes monitored included coverage obligations, voice quality and data quality as stated in the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) licence conditions and with specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). All MNOs are 3G Licence Holders; and are required to provide service in all 216 District Capitals. MNOs are expected to meet and exceed the KPIs stated in their licences. It should be noted that the number of districts covered within the first five (5) regions totalled 120.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF MONITORING

Results of 3G Coverage Obligations as at first quarter 2018

Results of Voice Quality (Voice Quality and Technical Parameters)

The voice quality measurement is based on Mean Opinion Score (MOS). MOS is a quality measure that is used to assess the human user’s opinion of call quality, testing of quality of voice transmission and measuring voice degradation. The standard for measuring MOS is an ITU accepted standard. MNOs are required per their Licence to meet a score of minimum 3.5 for 95% of calls.

3G Service covers 112 districts of the 120 District Capitals monitored.
Has to address some issues with Call Set Up time in Greater Accra region.

Glo

Failed at least one (1) Voice KPI in four of the five regions where monitoring was conducted.
Covers forty (40) District Capitals out of the 120 district capitals in the five regions.
Covers two (2) District Capitals in the Northern Region.
Has good data speed where they have 3G coverage.

MTN

Has met all the coverage obligations, covering 120 districts of the 5 regions.
Needs to improve on its Voice Quality, especially in highly populated areas.

Vodafone

Has met coverage obligations in 117 districts out of the 120 monitored.
Has data speed issues in some parts of Eastern Region.

Responses from the MNOs

The results of the QoS Monitoring were shared with all the MNOs. The Authority engaged them to determine reasons for their performance in areas where they were unable to meet their KPIs and MNOs were given the opportunity to explain the reasons or why they were unable to meet the required KPIs.

AirtelTigo – The recently merged network informed the NCA that multiple fibre cuts were the main challenges which disrupted service and sometimes hindered them from meeting the KPIs. Glo – Glo has taken note of the coverage issues which will require new sites to improve coverage especially in new developing areas and will work to address this. They also submitted that some coverage issues were due to site outage and will focus on improving site availability. MTN – The network operator indicated that their three (3) main challenges had to do with Site Acquisition, Fibre Cuts and Permitting challenges. In a few instances, they reported neighbourhood agitation with regards to the sites under construction. Vodafone – Vodafone indicated that they will make the necessary improvements in problem areas identified in the QoS Drive test.

Regulatory Actions after Monitoring

The Director General of the NCA, Mr. Joe Anokye said, MNOs have a great responsibility to meet the expectations of their customers and their licence conditions. He said, after a three month period, NCA would conduct another QoS monitoring in these same regions to determine if the situation has been resolved or improved.

He stressed that MNOs who would not have resolved or improved their performance would be sanctioned by the Authority.